Office Hours:

Physics Study Session:

Thurs. evenings 6:30-9:30 in Gerstacker 123

Meeting Times:

MWF 8:30-9:50; Colton 15

Textbook:

“Thermal Physics” by Daniel V. Schroeder

Course Overview:

Thermal or statistical physics provides the link between the microscopic world of atoms and molecules and the macroscopic world of everyday objects. This subject tackles such foundational issues as 1) the origin of irreversible processes from the time symmetric fundamental laws of physics and 2) the emergence of simple thermodynamic behavior in systems comprised of a large number of particles governed by an underlying chaotic dynamics. We will address these issues by examining the microscopic origins of the laws of thermodynamics. Since macroscopic systems are composed of an enormous number of particles, an exact description of each individual particle is impractical (if not impossible). Thus, we make use of probabilistic or statistical methods. While such an approach may appear to be approximate, in fact, statistical mechanics is a rigorous and exact theory of macroscopic matter. This course will cover the fundamentals of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and elementary transport theory. Since computer simulations play an important role in contemporary statistical mechanics research, we will also study the Monte Carlo method and everyone will carry out a computational project to investigate a magnetic, liquid, polymer, or other many-body system.